131st ARTICLE: Mother seeks answers

Metro Calgary newspaper

March 28, 2008

Mother seeks answers – Daughter missing almost two years

by Neil MacKinnon

It took Glendene Grant more than a year to make banana bread again; it was her daughter’s favorite.

Grant’s daughter, Jessica Foster; disappeared two years ago Saturday in Las Vegas, just four months after moving there from her home in Kamloops where it is feared the former straight-A student and graduate from John Diefenbaker in high school in Calgary was lured to the seedy side of the Vegas strip, working as an escort and then falling prey to a human trafficking ring.

“I wish a bad hair day, an ingrown toenail or a whining child were my big problems again,” she said.

“And closure, while it’s a wonderful idea, and it might be healthier mentally, psychologically, it’s not going to be that way for us.”

Just over a week ago, police arrested Jason Wayne Burnette in connection with a burned body that was found in Kilgore, Texas. A reconstruction of the woman’s face by a forensic artist bears striking resemblance to the blonde, blue-eyed Foster, who was 21 when she disappeared.

In January, Grant submitted a DNA sample and has yet to hear anything back while investigating police sent out a plea to the public last week for information on the woman’s identity, leading Grant to believe it’s not her daughter.

And while Grant’s mother’s intuition gives her the sense that her daughter is still alive, she won’t rest until she gets the answers that have evaded the family.

“I just hope she’s not locked away somewhere in a basement being force-fed drugs and made to do things against her will,” Grant said.